Olga Chekhova
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Olga Konstantinovna Chekhova or Tchechowa (1897, Tbilisi-1980, Berlin) was a Russian actress who made a stunning career in the cinema of the Third Reich.
Born Olga Knipper, she was the daughter of Konstantin Knipper, an imperial minister and the niece of Olga Knipper (Anton Chekhov's wife), both of whom were Lutherans of ethnic German descent. She went to school in Tsarskoe Selo but, after watching Eleanora Duse act, joined a studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. There she met the great actor Mikhail Chekhov (Anton's nephew) in 1915 and married him the same year. Their daughter Olga was born in 1916.
Two years after the Russian Revolution, Chekhova divorced her husband but kept his name. She managed to get a permission to leave Russia and came to Berlin in 1920. Her first cinema role was in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau silent movie 'Schloss Vogelöd' 1921. She also played in Max Reinhardt's productions at UFA, the same studio's where Fritz Lang directed Metropolis. She made the successful transition from silent film to talkies. In the 1930s, she rose to become one of the brightest stars of the Third Reich and was admired by Hitler (who did not know that Chekhova's ex-husband Mikhail Chekhov was half Jewish). A published photograph of her sitting beside Hitler at a reception gave the leaders of the Soviet intelligence service the impression that she had close contacts with Hitler. In fact she had more contact with the Minister of Propaganda Goebbels who was referring to her in his diaries as «eine charmante Frau» ('a charming lady').
During the WWII her acting career she was unsuccessful with her one film in Hollywood largely because her accent was too strong. After the war she continued to make films and largely retired from acting in 1955, publishing a book of memoirs and launched a cosmetics company. Her correspondence with Olga Knipper and Alla Tarasova was printed posthumously.
Soviet spy?
KGB archives made partially public in the 90's show that Chekhova was a Soviet «sleeper» agent recruited in the late 20's by her brother Lev Knipper, an active OGPU - NKVD (Soviet secret police) agent. It is believed that her role was to help her brother in Hitler assassination plot. In 1945, after Berlin was taken by the Red Army, Chekhova was flown to Moscow for a few days of interrogations. She returned to Berlin in June 1945.External link
- [Biography and photos] (in Russian)
References
- Beevor, Antony (2004) The Mystery of Olga Chekhova: was Hitler's favorite actress a Russian spy? ISBN 0-670-03340-5
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